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Audible, an Amazon company, is a leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible content includes more than 800,000 audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals. Audible members download nearly four billion hours of content annually.


BOOK OF THE YEAR Discover


Marcia Hutchinson’s The Mercy Step, a debut novel about a young girl raised in Bradford in the 1960s and ’70s, impressed in this category. An “extraordinary piece of writing”, said one judge; another called it “riveting”, while a third declared Hutchinson “an electrifying voice”. The panel particularly enjoyed the book’s depiction of the second-generation migrant and northern experience, which was sure to “resonate with so many people”. Hutchinson’s debut encompassed everything that the Discover award was set up


to celebrate – under-represented stories and plucky publishing. Cassava Republic released The Mercy Step, which had been turned down by multiple publishers, with verve. A striking cover drew on the novel’s themes, and the team organised 15 events across the country. An interview on BBC Radio 4 Front Row on “rewriting Bradford’s narrative” was a standout moment, and Hutchinson was named one of the Observer’s best new novelists of 2025. “An amazing piece of writing,” the panel concluded.


THE SHORTLIST


Beyond/Tu Hwnt BETHANY HANDLEY, MEGAN ANGHARAD HUNTER, SIONED ERIN HUGHES (EDITORS)


Human, Animal SETH INSUA


The Age of Olive Trees HAIA MOHAMMED


The Other Father


Christmas SERENA HOLLY, SHAHAB SHAMSHIRSAZ (ILLUS)


The Science


of Racism KEON WEST


The Mercy Step Marcia Hutchinson CASSAVA REPUBLIC


15


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